Intimate moments with
Ms.Scott
We get an exclusive look into the incredible mind and works of Jill Scott ahead of her London show.
HM: If I remember correctly London was the very first place you ever performed with the Roots, back in the day! IT IS…. Everything is coming full circle these days, it always make sense!
HM: If we think back to the old you and your first album ‘Who is Jill Scott’, who would you say Jill Scott is now compared to then? That is always a hard question to answer. I am a lot stronger, more driven than I used to be. I am a mum now so I am driven in a different way. It is not all about work and creating. It is also about having a piece of mind, I have arrived at this place and I am enjoying it. I work as hard as I play. I play as hard as I work. Family time to me is everything. I am more woman than I used to be if that makes any sense to you at all. I am more passionate, there is a lot of stuff happening here and I like it.
HM: You can really see that in your new album, it’s a lot more sassy. Where did the inspiration for this album come from? I don’t know… It started with MC’s I am a big fan of hip-hop, always have been and especially Philadelphia MC’s. Hanging out in Philly I started seeing all these ciphers, just MC’s rhyming everywhere. I walked into a sneaker store and Reek Mills had a mix tape playing in there, all of these things just seemed to click. This record needed to be more free than anything else, so the musicianship was important.
I had
great musicians just come and play. We didn’t know what were going to play or how we were going to play it. We just kind of freestyled and great things happened, complete thoughts, whole songs one at a time, back to back, It was just an extraordinary experience. When I started working on the song ‘So
18 hotminute mag
Gone’, I was kind of going through it. I was in a relationship or something, whatever you want to call it. Really passionate but not going anywhere. It was full of fire but that was it and I wanted more than that. I feel like I deserve more than that, and I need more than that. It was a bit of a struggle letting that go, kind of hard, more than kind of. Writing that and meeting a whole bunch of different people, finding out they go through the same stuff I do. Tapping into things and finding out you are not alone whatever it is your going through. Whether it is major or minor. Human experiences are pretty incredible if you take the time to pay attention to them.
HM: You always seem to wear your heart on your sleeve in your music. Do you feel vulnerable sometimes or worried about putting your emotions out there so much? No …That’s the job in my opinion that’s why we are here, your supposed to put your heart out or you guts on the table. That’s what artistic creativity is all about to me. I am a big fan of the painter / sculptor Salvador Dali. I love that he would put his sweat or his spunk …whatever into his work. You are putting a piece of your life inside your music. Marvin Gaye wrote an entire album on divorce, those are the type of artists I gravitate to. I write about my life, I don’t feel shy or that I am giving away too much.
HM: How do you go about translating the album into a live show? Rehearsals… I work with really incredible musicians, we listen hard and they hear very well. Sometimes hearing and listening are two different things so they hear what the notes are but they listen to the intent and the emotion behind the lyrics and the musicianship. It supposedly a whole other
level of creativity and expression, live that’s just the best part of it all.
HM: Your known in the UK for your role in the Number One Ladies Detective Agency. What was the experience like filming and what is your lasting impression of South Africa? Botswana is one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had in my life…Just the night, the sight of stars at night, the amount of shooting stars, the kindness and generosity of the people, it just affirmed my humanity and affirmed that God is real. The moon and the sun and the stars, the animals… I went on several safari’s and my mind was always blown. I just loved being there, I was there for seven months.
HM: How did you go about picking up the accent, It was really good? Initially I got a BIM (Barbadian) accent, and I didn’t know it until I got to Botswana and the people were like MHHMMH lol, that’s not right. I had been learning for over a month so I had to unlearn that and relearn very quickly. Botswana people are very proud I would not want to misrepresent.
HM: What do you want the lasting impression for of Light of The Sun to be on your audience? There is one thing that I always want is to remind people that it is ok to be people. It’s alright to be weak and to find your strengths it may not stay but be grateful for it while it is there. You are truly blessed that you woke up.
www.missjillscott.com Words: Enam G Photography: Courtesy of Blues Babe/ Warner Bros
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